


Joli Garçon

by Lait_Et_Sucre



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ballet, Credence Barebone Deserves Better, Credence Barebone Gets a Hug, Happy Credence Barebone, Multi, Protective Queenie Goldstein, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 04:00:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15234849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lait_Et_Sucre/pseuds/Lait_Et_Sucre
Summary: Credence had wanted for many things, always in secret, always fruitless. He wanted for many things but one above all else, he had always wanted to dance. There was more behind that wish than he realized.





	Joli Garçon

Ever since he was a child, ballet was something he dreamt about. The music, the fluidity a person’s body could achieve, the power behind every footstep, every single twist and turn and movement of arms. It always left him in awe, a fiery passion burning in his lungs and in his heart. He desired so strongly to be able to do the things that they were able to do. He knew that compared to the other boys his age, and any boy or man to be quite frank, this was strange. The most interest they had in ballet was of the girls with their bubbly smiles and dainty figures. Which made his predicament all the worse, seeing as rather than wanting, seeking after those girls, he wanted to be like those girls. He wanted to hold that same grace and poise, to be small and sweet. Oh, how he longed for that. But it was never to be for lanky, clumsy Credence with his eyes downcast and his fears too great. He wanted to be a dancer, with his head high and his body proud and tall, but how could he stand tall when he had the world upon his shoulders?  


Ever since he was a child, ballet was something he dreamt about. Ever since he was a child, his fate was sealed and he learned quickly that dreams were to be left in the twilight where no one else could find them. Dreams were intimate and locked away in hearts, to grasp onto just tight enough to be able to say, “I have a dream.” Yes, his dream was to dance, but there was so much more that fell into place with such an idea. “I want to be beautiful,” “I want to be loved,” and “I want to be free.” Credence wanted many things underneath his silver-lined dreams of ballet he supposed, which he also supposed made him quite greedy. At least, that was what his mother had told him ever since she had taken him in. So it must hold a heavy amount of truth, should it not?  


Either way, it was decided long ago that he wanted for far too many things, so he had done the only thing he decided he could do in such a situation. He stopped wanting. He stopped wishing. He stopped dreaming. He didn’t take anymore second glances at the ballerinas as they weaved their way in and out of the opera house, or through the extravagantly decorated windows. He no longer stood outside listening to the instructor’s voice cutting through the delicate stringing of a piano’s notes. No. He had stopped wanting. He had stopped hoping.  


But that had been before. Before that strange red haired man Newt and his partner Tina had swept him up and away from the clutches of his mother. Before he was welcomed into a warm home with a young woman, supposedly the sister of Tina, with golden hair and a glossed and pleasant smile, always draped in sweet silk and painted and powdered with golds and champagnes across her lips and eyes. He was overwhelmed by her warmth and the comfort he felt by simply being around her, which made him feel all the more guilty about the pangs of envy that twisted within him like a freshly sharpened knife when he saw her gracefully sway her hips or how she managed to turn her delicate beauty into an impeccable strength. Unsurprisingly, her name was Queenie.  


But you mustn’t get him wrong. He didn’t dislike her for such a petty reason as his own twisted sort of emotion, he cared for her so dearly as one of his closest friends, as one of the first people to freely show him kindness. He just had too strong of a desire to be like her, of no fault of her own, rest assured. The envy of every woman, and Credence, as well as the dream of every man, and.. Well, quite the number of women as well. It came as a surprise when he saw that she had settled herself down with a rather simple, large man named Jacob. But he soon realized his own mistake of judgement the more he got to know the man, and how he and Queenie acted with one another. He was a kind man by default, friendly without having to put effort into it. And he was marvelously sweet on Queenie, always knew how to make her smile in a way that she completely lost the pretense of that glorious doll. Instead her eyes crinkled so much you could hardly see them, and her smile just about took up her entire face. By no means was it an ugly smile, nothing Queenie did could ever be considered anything less than dazzling. But her charming mask slipped so easily around Jacob, and Credence decided at that point that those two are what love was supposed to look like.  


A few weeks later, when fall was showing its first signs; the way the air grew crisp and cool in his lungs, the gentle smell that clung to every moment of that season. He was always the first to notice that change. Everyone else seemed to wait until the leaves changed to vibrant reds and yellows before they reluctantly announced that fall had started, but he knew better. All he had to do was breathe and the air told him without fail. That was when he decided love didn’t have a certain standard in which it needed to follow in order to be considered a true sort of love. That while Queenie and Jacob were a beautiful example that an idea like true love was sure to exist, it also showed itself in many other ways. He decided as much, the more he watched his original saviors, Newt and Tina. They didn’t flirt outright at dinner when the lights were dim and they leaned closer and stared into one another’s eyes, their confectionery banter and laughter enveloping them in an entirely separate world like Queenie and Jacob. Oh no, Tucking strands of hair gently behind an ear, asking one another about their day, being comfortable enough to be themselves in their own unique passions; Newt with his animals and Tina with her beloved career as a doctor. They had a delicate air about themselves when they spoke to one another that was impossible to miss. It wasn’t romantic or dreamy like Queenie’s love, but it was unwavering and unquestionable, and so Credence decided that that was just as magical as any fairy tale romance.  


As much as he desired that kind of adoration in his own life, he quickly stopped fretting over it. It was a lovely sentiment, of course, but he knew that what he had now was something simply unexchangeable. He had a home, he had food and clothes and warmth. He had a family. He had happiness. He had his very own, unique sort of love for all of those within his life now. That was more than he could every ask for. More than he could even imagine.  


But at the same time that he finally began to understand all of the different ways love could show itself, he began to indulge in his own former love of ballet. He didn’t begin traipsing about in the moonlight or signing up for any classes, so he supposed indulge would not be quite the word to use, but he began to toy with the idea of doing so. That was more than he had allowed himself to do since his own childhood, and that both frightened and excited him. He began to dream about it, the lovely way the piano would be played so softly, the tranquility of simply letting himself be free unlike he ever had before, how perhaps despite all of his years of carrying himself in a way that was less than appealing, he could finally begin to hold his own in the same way all of those pretty girls did in their blush colored tights and precise footsteps. But would he ever dare?  


The first person to learn of his decidedly mortifying secret desire was, of course, dear Queenie.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoy this story :) I'll be editing and rewriting as I go, but I believe I'll be updating regularly enough, so I hope you stay to support it all the way through!


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